


Throwing Flowers To The Sea

by panbeing



Category: Original Work
Genre: Death, F/F, Fantasy, Mermaids, Other, Sirens, Songfic, Spirits, Tumblr, Zodiac, bad fortune, fantastic creatures, fortune tellers, medieval times, not quite a love story but if i ever decide to write a second chapter it can be that as well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-06
Updated: 2015-11-06
Packaged: 2018-04-30 07:55:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5156105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panbeing/pseuds/panbeing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A seer girl who can only see bad fortune and death is being sent to a queen of a country from her king. She never arrives to the Queen. The characters are inspired from this post: http://starsuhline.tumblr.com/post/115346954553/the-signs-as-evil-mythical-creatures Sagittarius and Aquarius. And also inspired from Florence+The Machine's Never Let Me Go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Throwing Flowers To The Sea

Deema woke up early again. She couldn’t sleep well and she didn’t want to try anymore. Not like she wasn’t used to this, she knew exactly why she didn’t sleep well. She took a quick shower and braided her hair. She didn’t forget to add some pretty flowers to the braid, some daisies, small Chinese roses she had been growing herself, gillyflowers, lilies and everything else she could fit in there, all from her garden. Well, she had a lot of hair so even though the amount of flowers in her hair was a little too much, it didn’t look too much. She murmured a sad song while getting ready. She wore a white long dress. Shoes? Who needed shoes? She would allow all the pebbles to hurt his feet this time. She felt that would be appropriate since that little girl didn’t have shoes to wear. When she played outside, all cheerful, she wouldn’t let the small pebbles took away that cheer from her. Actually she didn’t understand it yet but Deema thought it would make a beautiful quote, “Don’t allow obstacles to keep you from your happiness.” 

She was almost about to cry when she managed to get out of her house. The sun wasn’t even painting the sky to red and purple yet. It was just slightly lightened night sky and some stars that are ready to be drowned in the daylight. Not yet. She started walking. Oh did her feet hurt already. But she wasn’t going to complain. When she arrived to the wooden door a couple of streets away from hers, she was crying. She never liked doing this. She never wanted this. She took out a white lily, still fresh and pure, out of her braid and put it on front of the door. A tear dropped on the petals of the flower. She turned her back and ran away, back to her home. Thank gods, that was all for today. Because it was enough to drain the life out of her.

She wrapped herself to a blanket, couldn’t find it herself to make some tea. Sitting next to the window, she stared outside with red eyes. The sky became lighter and lighter. People in the town started waking up. She felt like she wasn’t respecting enough. She finally decided to get back outside. Found herself in the same street. Sitting on the sidewalk, she stared at the door. The neighborhood went to their business, not much noticed the girl on the sidewalk. A few people did notice the lily in front of the old, worn-out wooden door, though. They all turned their heads with a sad, long sigh. Some asked “Who is it this time?” Some, the ones who know the people living in this house, even thought of the old man living inside the house, the grandfather of the little girl. Nobody thought of the little girl. She was too young to be an option, right?

Then the door opened. A middle-aged lady was standing at the door, hand closing his mouth so she won’t scream. Only a small gasp was heard. The woman’s legs couldn’t hold her much longer, she collapsed right there, crying. Young girl came running to her. Hugged her mother. She didn’t know what any of these meant. She was just trying to make her mother stop crying. She was a little afraid, yes but it didn’t matter. She was a mature little girl. She and her mother went through a lot. She would be there when her mother needed her. That was what a good kid should do, right?

Little girl had a matching white dress on her. Stained with dirt, probably when she was playing outside. Her messy hair was everywhere. When her mother managed to stand up, she hold her hand and take her inside. Deema didn’t move. She was going to wait this time. 

Around noon, her mother let the girl play outside. She didn’t want her to be inside actually, so she wouldn’t have to witness a death. It would be hard for a girl her age to see her grandfather dying, wouldn’t it? Or was it her mommy this time? Anyways, she could be playing outside with her friends, it would be better for her. There was one thing she forgot to calculate, like everyone else. Nobody wanted to think of that one possibility. Maybe it was too hard for a human’s consciousness.

A man’s sound irked Deema when she was lost in her thoughts. In a grocery shop an old man was yelling at a young boy for his stealing fruits. He said he’d let the King’s soldiers know about this and the boy looked pale instantly. He was just trying to find food for his siblings, just like it happened in Deema’s dreams. Four soldiers appeared at the other side of the street, on their horses. They were going fast. It wouldn’t take a fortune teller to say harm would come to someone. The young boy started running, knocking over tables, barrels, whatever he could do to slow the horsemen down. In the chaos no one saw the little girl playing in the street. Just like no one saw one of the horses stepping on her tiny body and making her head hit the ground. Just like no one wanted to see who the lily in front of the door actually was for. Pure, non-bruised white lily, young girl in a white dressed. The lily was bruised by now, though, so was the little girl. Deema heard screams. Young thief stopped, even horsemen stopped. It was like time was entirely stopped. Just, it wasn’t. The old wooden door opened, the mother got out of the house, trying to understand what was going on. When she saw a crowd forming around a white piece of cloth, stained, with blood this time, she ran as fast as she could.

Deema stood up from the pavement. Between the legs of tens of people huddling around the girl, she saw an eye staring directly into hers.

She turned his back to the crowd with a sigh. Right when she took a step forward, to her home, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She was expecting people to not notice her actually. Then she looked at the owner of this hand and saw one of the horsemen. He said “The king wants to see you.” She knew she couldn’t run away, the man was gripping her wrists tightly. She saw the thief boy on the horse of a horseman. He got caught, of course. Now his siblings can’t find food and he will be imprisoned. Well, king didn’t tolerate thieves. She was sad for the boy. But she knew this would happen. She also knew this would be the beginning of the worst part of this boy’s life.

 

_______________________

“When he comes you will sit on this side of the table. Eat something if you wish to do so. Behave yourself. Alfred, bring her some shoes. I don’t want her to step on here with her filthy feet. Go clean her up, you have 20 minutes.”

She didn’t really know what was going on around her. She was aware that she would be seeing the king soon, she was aware that she couldn’t look bad when she is with the king too. She just had no idea why she was there. Eh, she wasn’t dying to see the king, he was a horrible man. For example, if he was fair to his people, that boy wouldn’t have to steal and get in jail.

When she was finally ready, she sat to her chair. There were a lot of good food on the table and she could feel her stomach growling. She decided to eat some fruit. Perhaps she shouldn’t have stuffed her mouth with cherries?

When a servant with a fancy dress came in to let her know he was coming, she was still trying to swallow the cherries. She got up from her chair, curtsied and waited. First, a couple of soldiers and servants got inside. Then a short man with a black beard followed them. He had some expensive looking dresses on and he wasn’t wearing a crown like Deema expected him to be. When she felt like it was okay to stand up straight again, she looked into the cold eyes of the man. They both imitated a smile; Deema said “Your majesty.” with bowing a little. The king looked at her with disapproving eyes but still kept the distant smile. 

“Hello,” he asked to the soldier next to him what her name was, “you must be Deema. Sit down, sit down. No need to be this formal. I heard that you are the best fortuneteller in the kingdom. If you see something, it always happens. And I wanted to see it myself, to know if you are just a swindler who robs my people.”

“Ah but I don’t even take money. I don’t work as a fortuneteller; I sell flowers that I grow myself to live. And sometimes I have those visions about people and rarely need I to go tell those people about the visions. Sometimes people come ask me about their fortunes but I prefer not to tell most of the time since I only see bad luck and deaths.”  
“So you are serious about your visions. Can you prove it to me?”  
“Your grace, as I just said I can only see the bad things. Are you sure you want to hear this?”  
“I am sure you can tell me something nice? Wouldn’t you try a little harder for your king?”

Deema sighed. It wasn’t about trying. It was just the way it was. She couldn’t change the things she saw. Sometimes there are good things but they are only given to her so she can understand the bad things better.  
“I will try my best, your grace.”

She shut her eyes. She didn’t have to do that actually. But she did anyway to focus better. There was a face of an old woman. The woman was angry for some reason. Deema could see the hate in her eyes. She was talking to a tall, slim man who looked sickly pale. Then Deema noticed the man’s belt that is full of blades and other weapons. Was this guy… some sort of assassin maybe? Her doubts were confirmed with what comes after. The man was with a few other assassins, a female was climbing the walls to get inside and kill the person in that room, the others followed her afterwards. By the morning there would be no survivors in the whole palace. 

When she opened her eyes, she didn’t know what to tell to the king. He was expecting good news; she liked her head on her shoulders. She looked at the king with terrified eyes so he looked around and ordered his men to empty the room.  
“Tell me. Was it bad?”  
“I am so sorry your grace, you are a really important person for the whole kingdom but you better not hear it.”  
“NO! YOU WILL TELL ME WHAT YOU SAW RIGHT NOW!”  
“…”  
“Go on or I will feed you to my dogs.” He probably wasn’t exaggerating. She didn’t see herself dying so what could be the worst thing that can happen to her?  
“I apologize, your majesty. I will tell you what will happen but first, let me warn you about one thing. You can’t prevent what is coming no matter what you do. Whether or not you try to do something about this doesn’t matter. All the actions you do will lead you to this way.  
I saw assassins. An old lady will send them. I don’t know who she is, I don’t remember her face exactly, I don’t know how many of them will come. I just know that no one will see the next morning in this palace when it happens. You can even try to run away but you will have to return here. You will have to die here that night. I can’t give you an exact date either. But I can feel you don’t have much time.”  
“LIAR! YOU ARE LYING! NO ONE CAN DARE TO DO THIS. THERE IS NOT A SINGLE PERSON ON THIS KINGDOM THAT HOLDS THIS POWER, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME? You… I know what you are trying to do. You will ask for money right? To tell the truth. Yes, go on, ask for whatever you want. You can take everything. Just give me a true answer!”

He just won’t understand, will he? Deema didn’t know what to do. She kept saying that she has nothing else to see, she can’t change the future but the king refused to understand this.   
“You will stay in the dungeons until I decide what I am going to do with you. If I die in this palace, so will you. Find a way to change this!”

Soldiers and servants got inside again. This time to shove Deema to the prison.

________________________

She could keep track of the weeks by counting her showers. They were allowing her to wash once in 2 weeks. There was no toilet in the dungeons. She was living in her own dirt. The food was disgusting but she would only get one meal a day so she had to eat. And flowers. They took away all her flowers. She wasn’t allowed to have any flower next to her. She would wake up every night to the nightmares of the dying people and she couldn’t leave a flower at their doorsteps.

Three showers. The third one felt like it came earlier than the others. She wouldn’t get much water to wash herself but she enjoyed being somewhat clean. When she got into the bathroom, she found much more water than she expected today. There were clean towels too. And what was that, a dress? For her? She once again found herself not understanding what was going on around her but this time she wasn’t complaining. She washed herself as well as she can, then two women get inside to clean her up even better. They washed her hair until the dirt went away. They helped her dry herself up; they even helped with the dress. That dress wasn’t hers. It must’ve been from the palace. Was she getting out of this hell hole finally? The women helped her braid her hair too. All the long curls were hard to maintain when they weren’t braided. She didn’t want to cut them too because whenever she got a haircut, she felt like she was losing her senses.

If the ladies were talking to her a little bit, she wouldn’t lose herself in thoughts that fast. But no. It was like everyone swore to not to talk to her. Were they afraid of her? Was that the whole deal?

Once she is done dressing up, some soldiers came to take her outside. Her eyes teared up a bit because of the strong sunlight. She thought she’d never appreciated the fresh air enough before. The soldiers explained her that she will be shipped to the queen of another country as a gift. Couldn’t they let her enjoy the weather before treating her like an object? It wasn’t like she was going to put up a fight. She didn’t have the power for it. If she could manage, she would return one day. But this queen, if the king would like her, he wouldn’t send her to the queen as a gift. You don’t send people you like the things you hate. Not even in diplomacy. Well she liked ships so maybe the trip would be more fun than the time she spent in the dungeons.

Her thoughts were interrupted once she saw the kids playing on the garden of the palace. One of the kids ran towards her, had something in his hands. A yellow flower. There were many kinds of flowers in palace garden so Deema didn’t understand what it was from that distance. Then the kid came next to her, she was afraid of the reactions of the soldiers. No one seemed to care. The boy gave the flower to Deema and said he and his friends thought she was really pretty so they wanted to give this to her. A Dragon’s Wort. She smiled warmly to the kid and once he got back to his friends, the smile on her face turned into an evil grin. Because she knew this flower meant horror and she knew where exactly to put this.

Once a carriage came, a soldier helped her to get inside, and he sat with her. She wasn’t expecting to be “shipped” this early. She thought maybe tomorrow they’d sail but no, as soon as she gets out, she would be ripped away from her lands. As the carriage left the palace, she threw the flower in her hands to the castle doors from the tiny window.

She has spent around a week on board and gods know how many times she’s heard the crew talking about how having a woman on deck brings bad luck and she already meant bad luck because of her gift. It was a small ship so she didn’t have many options to spend time with. She didn’t have any bad visions about this trip, though. She was optimistic.

On 9th day on the ship, she noticed some movement in crew. Everyone looked like they were in a hurry. When she paid attention she saw all the crew stuffing their ears with cotton, cloth, wax, whatever they can find. She asked one of the crew members, before he covers his ears, what did all this mean and he said that they were about to enter Mermaid Waters.   
“In these waters, so many mermaids live. Well, mermaids aren’t the issue because all they do is to sing and they aren’t too strong but the actual problem is Sirens. They are stronger, enough to pull someone off of the deck. And when they sing, men lose their minds. They have really beautiful voices and if they call you, you won’t want to resist and find yourself in water. Then they will start eating you before you even die. Mermaids will feed on your leftovers but sirens… that will hurt. Don’t worry, they don’t harm females. Because they lure men with love songs, females aren’t affected by it.” And he covered his ears. Some men even tied themselves to places just to make sure.

It was actually funny to see the horror on all faces around her. Until she saw a mermaid jumping out of the water to take a look at the ship. Then others followed it. In about thirty seconds, there were hundreds of mermaids around them, jumping in and out of water; some even went straight above the entire ship. Were those the sirens? She couldn’t tell which ones were mermaids and which ones were sirens actually.

The mermaids suddenly stopped jumping around. They all sticked their heads above the water and calmed down. Then they started singing. It didn’t feel like a normal song. Some were just whispering, some were singing really loudly and it all just made a head spinning effect on her. It was like they were talking directly to her soul. She was full of love, excitement; she wanted to run but also sit down and cry because of the overwhelming feelings. She ran to the edge of the deck and leaned down. Right below her was a beautiful girl with golden eyes. She was singing too. Soon all Deema could hear was the golden eyed one’s voice. She wasn’t trying to understand if she was a siren or a mermaid anymore, she just wanted to hear more of it. She leaned down as much as she could, even tried to give her hand to the girl below. When she reached out to hold her hand Deema was in pure bliss. The song was more personal now. She felt like she knew her since the day they were born. Or they were meant to meet right here and right now. And when she fell into the water she felt at peace.

Before she let out the last bits of oxygen in her lungs, she was thinking that maybe this was fine. She was tired of waking up at nights with death visions. Seeing negativity everywhere she looks was not the best way to live. But dying here, in cold arms of a siren (now she was sure that was a siren) didn’t seem that bad. If it was bad luck, she would’ve seen it coming, right? She felt mermaids pulling her down. The siren seemed to be swimming opposite way from mermaids but she was too tired to care. She hugged her beautiful siren as tight as she can while the lack of air was burning her lungs and everything went black.

…And it’s over and I’m going under;  
But I’m not giving up; I’m just giving in.  
I’m slipping underneath;  
So cold and so sweet…


End file.
